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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23613730">maybe on another day, i would love you</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/aetherae/pseuds/aetherae'>aetherae</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>(that heavily rely on you the reader knowing what was missed), Angst, Canon Compliant, Drama, F/M, Missed Connections, Post-Timeskip | War Phase (Fire Emblem: Three Houses), i mean. depending on the choices you make i guess!, if you're a 'recruit anyone and everyone' type 3h player maybe not</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 16:28:23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,382</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23613730</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/aetherae/pseuds/aetherae</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Only on the battlefield do they regret what could have been.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Annette Fantine Dominic/Felix Hugo Fraldarius</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>19</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>maybe on another day, i would love you</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>"what if instead of making them kiss i make them kill each other instead," said me in regards to probably 70% of my otps. netteflix doesn't even have THAT much angst to them, they already have canon Heartbreaking Loved Ones to face, but still i've bent over backwards to ensure something sad and bloody for them anyways. that's just how i am. i'm sorry.</p>
<p>BUT IF YOU'RE HERE REGARDLESS OF THAT (or are like me and just live for that sweet, sweet angst), then i hope you enjoy!!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <b>crimson flower—</b>
</p>
<p>Fhirdiad burns around him.</p>
<p>It should give him pause, Felix thinks. While not his home, he’s walked through Fhirdiad’s streets and traipsed about through its castle more times than he can count. Some of his happiest memories are here. Memories of training with his father and Glenn, of running through the castle grounds with Sylvain and Ingrid. Memories of Dimitri when he was still his most precious friend in the entire world.</p>
<p>But he buried those memories already. Half of them in Arianrhod, the other half in the Tailtean Plains. It’s too late to pretend those things still matter, that he has the luxury of regret. Felix needs nothing else aside from his sword and moving forward.</p>
<p>(What was it all for, if that’s not the case?)</p>
<p>So he moves forward, sword gripped in his hand, as Rhea sets a city of innocent, helpless people on fire.</p>
<p>The castle lies just ahead of him now, as does that dragon of a former archbishop, when a cast of Cutting Gale nearly slices his shoulder open. When he finds the caster, he nearly doesn’t recognize her at first, but the spellwork seems familiar all the same. The fire of her hair glows unnaturally bright amidst the burning city, like the righteous fury of the weak given form. Of course he doesn’t recognize her at first—he never saw her this angry, this desperate. But even when not in the lilt of a song, even with the passage of more than five years, he recognizes her voice.</p>
<p>“Felix.”</p>
<p>Right. Now he remembers.</p>
<p>“Annette.”</p>
<p>He caught her singing in the greenhouse, once upon a time. Steaks and cakes, crumbs and yums—utterly ridiculous, yet undeniably charming. It had to be for him to still remember the lyrics to this day. Back then, he would’ve rather died than admit it, but now, he can recognize how he tried more than once to catch her singing again. He never did though, and by the time he transferred to the Black Eagles, he’d given up on hearing any more of her songs.</p>
<p>Briefly, he wonders if she still sings. After five years of war, he wouldn’t think there’s much worth singing about.</p>
<p>“You’re in my way,” he says in what he insists to himself isn’t a warning, but a simple statement of facts. Felix puts both hands around his sword. That’s warning enough.</p>
<p>Annette widens her stance, hands gripped around her massive Relic. “I won’t let you pass.”</p>
<p>She means it. The bodies of Imperial soldiers littering the streets before her is testament to that, and unsurprisingly, she doesn’t make it easy for him. Her footwork’s gotten even better, he thinks idly as she manages to dodge swing after swing of his blade, as has her strength. Even when he avoids getting smashed into pieces, the spiked ends of her Relic draw more blood from him than he likes.</p>
<p>Still, it’s not enough. It never is.</p>
<p>Exhaustion wears the both of them down, but soon enough, Felix’s blade finds home in his enemy as it always does: this time, dead center through her chest. She gasps, Crusher slipping out of her raised hands. He pulls his sword out, and before she can even fall to the ground, he slashes one more time, cutting her down permanently.</p>
<p>The world will never hear any of her songs again. It’s a shame.</p>
<p>Felix moves forward anyways.</p>
<p> </p><hr/>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <b>verdant wind—</b>
</p>
<p>Gronder Field burns around her.</p>
<p>Her father must be here somewhere, Annette thinks wildly, and no small part of her hopes she can manage to avoid him. It’s one thing to take down former schoolmates, to see the life slip from their eyes simply for standing on the opposite side of the battlefield. No matter Gilbert’s failures as a father, it would be another thing to have to cut him down herself. The very thought makes her sick.</p>
<p>When she saw the raised banners of the Kingdom army here, she thought she really would be sick. Dimitri never died, her homeland always had its king, and she betrayed them both by fighting for the Alliance instead. For a moment, she wondered if it was a mistake to reunite with the professor and the Golden Deer, if the Kingdom’s fight against the Faerghus Dukedom was never a losing battle, if she belonged on a different side of the field altogether.</p>
<p>And then she watched her former house leader tear through his enemies with a savage, bloodthirsty glee, bellowing for Edelgard’s head all the while. Annette swallowed, turned back to her battalion with a nod, and charged forward with the rest of the Alliance forces.</p>
<p>In a perfect world, they’d work together with the Kingdom. Even with the combined intellect of both the professor and Claude, tactics and schemes aren’t enough to make up for the sheer difference in numbers. Annette ran the math over and over, and it never added up to their victory. Instead, hours pass as she fights almost blindly through the smoke and smog, the battlefield too chaotic to tell anyone apart. A weaker part of her wonders if it’ll be enough to prevent her from recognizing anyone among the enemies.</p>
<p>But she fails to account for sound. A familiar battlecry pierces through the air, and Annette’s blood runs cold. She remembers hearing it nearly every day at the training ground, at every sword tournament, in every mission she had with the Blue Lions up until she transferred houses.</p>
<p>The smog clears for just a moment, and she sees exactly who stands across from her on the battlefield. The glow of Aegis on his back makes it all too obvious. From the muted but undeniable shock in his eyes, he can see her, too.</p>
<p>“Annette.”</p>
<p>Despite the roar of battle all around them, her name sounds too loud. She’s almost surprised that he remembers her. But then she isn’t, not really, because for all her childish blustering back then, Felix was never that callous and cruel. Not to her at least.</p>
<p>“Felix.”</p>
<p>For a moment, they simply gaze at one another. It could be as short as a single second or as long as this entire war. To Annette, it feels like eternity. She’d rather it was, if it meant not having to fight him.</p>
<p>And then the moment passes. Felix grips his sword, Annette raises her hands, and there’s nothing left to say.</p>
<p>If they were anywhere else, she thinks she’d have plenty to say to him. After all, he was the first person to ever hear her songs. Back then, she’d been too embarrassed to share them with anyone, not even Mercie. She remembers assuming he mocked her for her lyrics, making fun of a silly little girl with even sillier lyrics, but now, she thinks he was being sincere. That he might have actually liked them. Their encounter was enough to prepare her for when Claude overheard her singing, if nothing else. If they had the time, if they were anywhere else, she’d say she hoped he stopped sneaking up on people in greenhouses. She’d say sorry for being mistaken back then, that she figures he was only trying to be nice, that she wonders if he even remembers the steaks and cakes or crumbs and yums. </p>
<p>She’d say thank you, for being the first person to compliment her songs.</p>
<p>But she says nothing when her battalion strikes him with a bolt of lightning straight out of the heavens. He says nothing when he charges forward regardless, the edge of his blade coming too close, too soon even as he staggers. Wounded as he is, still Felix cuts through her battalion like paper, closing the distance between them easily until he stands right in front of her—</p>
<p>And she blasts a Cutting Gale from her palms right into his chest.</p>
<p>The cut is as clean as any slash from a sword. Felix falls to his knees, weapon slipping from his slack hands as blood bubbles from his throat. Annette keeps her eyes steady on his all the while, refusing to look away no matter how much she wants to. In his gaze, she’d swear there’s something like approval.</p>
<p>It makes her want to cry.</p>
<p>Here, at his end, there’s nothing left to say. Nothing except:</p>
<p>“Goodbye, Felix.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>felix is such a fucking beast of a unit no matter my run that i wonder how realistic it really is for annette to be able to defeat him on her own but like. let's just roll with it, the way i roll with felix still moving after getting hit by a gambit!!</p>
<p>also i guess this is written with the assumption that felix and annette somehow made it to their b rank support despite not sharing houses. who knows, maybe byleth kept borrowing them for missions just to make the ship happen........</p></blockquote></div></div>
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